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Archived: Help British Champs Defend Title and Compete Internationally

iCrowdNewswire - Dec 29, 2015

Help British Champs Defend Title and Compete Internationally

We are the reigning British Pairs Champions for figure skating: Caitlin Yankowskas and Hamish Gaman. In our first full season together we placed 9th at the European Figure Skating Championships and earned our first international medal, silver, at the Challenge Cup in The Netherlands.

Our story began with a simple out of the blue text from Hamish to Caitlin. With a tryout date set, Hamish jumped on a plane from England to USA at the first opportunity. One successful tryout later, a partnership was formed. Together we are enjoying the pursuit of our dream, constantly striving to give our best effort. Having overcome the challenge of a serious injury to Caitlin, that almost ended our journey before it even began. We are stronger and ready for the greater challenges that lie ahead. We are making the most of our second chance. Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

We have been selected to represent GBR at two internationals. It is a gift everyday for us to skate together and for Great Britain. The competitions are U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, and Skate Canada Autumn Classic.

Our goal for this season is to win more medals for GBR at these events, defend our National title, and ultimately improve on our 9th pace finish at the European Championships and compete at the World Championships in Caitlin’s home town Boston.

Currently our federation is not providing any funding for this season and we must cover all our training and expenses to the competitions we have been awarded. We have already taken dramatic steps to reduce our training cost by approximately 60% and both our families have increased their financial support of us. Without their continued support we would not be able to continue to skate for GBR. This combined with the money we earned last season from prize money and performing in shows is only enough to cover our already reduced training expenses (lessons, ice fees, choreography, costumes, gym membership, physical therapy, living costs, etc.).

We are very fortunate to be trained by one of the World’s best coaching teams of Richard Gauthier, Bruno Marcotte and Julie Marcotte. Their skating program in Montreal has some of the best teams from around the world, including the reigning world champions. With their help we have improved tenfold from our first season, and can only imagine the possibilities to come by continuing to learn under their tutelage.

The $8,000 we are trying to raise will allow us to compete at the two international competitions for GBR and our National Championships. The money will help us to cover our travel cost, competition entry fees, hotels, and allow us to bring our coach. These competitions are vital to our development and improving our world ranking in preparation for the European and World championships next year. Without this extra support from you we may not be able to defend our National title, which I am sure you can imagine would be a huge disappointment to us both.

Thank you for taking the time to support us. Any donation no matter how large or small is greatly appreciated and helps us get one step closer to achieving our dreams. If you encounter any problems when making a donation please contact us directly so we can address the issue.

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